A Matter of Dignity
by Cristipotter
Summary: She didn't expect her sisters to understand. Yes, she had punched the guy. And maybe she had gone a bit too far. But how was she supposed to explain that it had been a matter of dignity? And not exactly HER dignity. One-shot. Slight AAML.


**Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I know it isn't the 14th yet (at least not here), but I'm traveling outside the country tomorrow morning and I wanted to leave this posted before leaving. I wish you all have a great time with your loved ones! This is my gift to all the ones who enjoy what I write. You're seriously the best, so thank you!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

**XXX**

When Misty sat at the kitchen table that morning and didn't hear the usual, cheerful chirps of 'good morning, sis!' and 'how did the little runt sleep?' –Although the latter hadn't been heard for a long while now, actually –she knew her sisters were probably already informed of the little incident of the night before.

"Valentine's Day is over," she muttered in a hoarse, not-fully-awake voice when Daisy placed a plate with a heart-shaped waffle in front of her. She had never really felt the spirit of Valentine's Day, but this year she was just glad it was over. Hoping to avoid talking about why she had acted the way she had the night before, she plunged her fork right in the middle of the waffle, catching a strawberry in the way, and decided to avert her sisters' focus away from herself with a "so how were your dates last night?" not that she was really interested in the answer.

But it was to no avail, for Daisy rightfully ignored the question and shot her own "Why the _hell_ did you, like, hit Travis last night?" while placing her hands on her hips, adopting the manner of 'responsible oldest sister' Misty was sure she had been practicing ever since the three of them returned from their little 'tour'. The twins had been probably practicing too, for they were now shooting her poignant looks that were so unusual on them.

"How did you –"

"I spoke to Tracey this morning," she snapped, and Misty thought her blonde sister looked taller than usual and slightly threatening, which wasn't good because she had never felt particularly threatened by any of her sisters "he, like, told me what happened. So would you, like, care to explain?"

"The guy was a jerk!" she said defensively, standing up from her chair and leaving her waffle practically forgotten and untouched "I could hardly believe he was Tracey's cousin! He was awfully conceited and he couldn't have been any more full of himself."

Daisy sighed, letting her hands drop from her hips and raising one to place on the redhead's shoulder, 'responsible oldest sister' manner still in place. Misty felt the urges to slap the hand off her, but controlled herself after her sister said "Look, sis. I _know_ some guys can be, like, jerks and all. But you can't let your temper and violent tendencies take the best of you."

Lily and Violet agreed, nodding and muttering 'she's right's while Misty craned for a way to argue with them, especially on the part where they had practically described her as a monster in a girl's body with a 'temper' and 'violent tendencies'.

"Besides, you can't, like, send guys to the Emergency Room just because you think they're being jerks."

Misty was about to argue when she decided otherwise and her mouth shut with a snap. They were right, of course, about not having to go hitting every jerkass she encountered, but Travis Sketchit had possessed a whole other level of conceitedness and idiocy within him. Not that it had been the reason for Misty to hit him, for she had come to the resolve halfway through the date to just cope with it until the lousy night was finally over.

It had rather been a matter of dignity, and she had no idea how on earth she was going to explain to her sisters that it hadn't been exactly _her_ dignity the one that had suffered some derangement to the point where she had broken her resolve and decided to break the idiot's nose.

**XXX**

_**A Matter of Dignity**_

**XXX**

"You know how gyarados are, you _have_ one, so you must know how hard they are to train. But well, I raised Boris since he was a little magikarp and he just did excellent in every battle I put him in. Raising gyarados is no easy task, I tell you. But yeah, Boris, Dorothea and Berth are the best of their kind in the whole Orange Archipelago, and I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say the whole world. It's hard having to train _one_ gyrados, but I had to train _three_, and I say this with all the humbleness in the world; they are fan-tas-tic. And then there's Leah, who is the strongest vaporeon in the Vaporeon Cove in Tangelo Island. I had her since she was an Eevee, caught her with a caterpie! Can you imagine how strong a caterpie has to be for it to beat an Eevee? It was a short battle and after that I…"

Misty loved pokémon, and she _adored_ water-types –she could catch some of her favorites being mentioned in Travis's incessant rant about whatever it was he was rambling on –but she had never been so unfocused and bored in a conversation about it. Maybe because she hadn't been able to actually be a part of it for the past fifteen minutes, and had already finished her ravioli while he was barely halfway through his Pesto spaghetti.

"…and I made it to fourth place in the Orange League, although I'm pretty sure I would've won if they hadn't let the other trainers get away with some pretty sneaky stuff. I had won about six consecutive battles already, using the same pokémon in all of them. They were doing really good, not a single scratch on them, and –"

"Can I get you more wine?" the waitress's voice felt almost soothing, cutting Travis in mid-sentence.

"_Please_," Misty said almost too desperately, deciding she would be grateful to that waitress until the end of time. If she had too keep listening to Travis talk about all his amazing achievements, getting into every single detail in each of them, then she might as well get a bit of alcohol into her blood system to help her cope with it. Why she had thought that having a blind date with Tracey's cousin on Valentine's Day would be a good idea was something she would probably never know.

The waitress's interruption had been refreshing, but as soon as she poured the wine into Misty's glass and walked away, the guy sitting across from her –who she had thought was kind of cute when she first saw him but now couldn't remember why she had done so on the first place –continued his rambling, whose talk apparently had moved on from pokémon and was now focusing on how he had won some surfing tournament held on Trovita Island a few months before.

At the mention of Trovita, her mind drifted away once again into another situation altogether, although making sure to leave a fake expression of interest plastered on her face before doing so, and she started wondering what had become of Rudy and if he was still the gentleman he had been when she met him; a polar opposite of the guy currently sitting in front of her, whose plate of green spaghetti wasn't getting any emptier to her dismay. He was saying how some tentacruel had gotten hold of his surfboard, and she had never been so uninterested at the mention of 'tentacruel', for she was now remembering how nice Rudy had been and how pleasant the date with _him_ had been –although she had been barely thirteen at the time and hadn't known much about dates whatsoever –and how, when he had asked her to stay with him, she had refused.

Right, because back then there had been an Ash to follow, and to be there for, and to crush over. Yep, she had wanted him, and badly, and the sole memory sent a tinge of amusement inside her chest. Before she knew it, she had already chuckled out loud and made Travis stop in mid-sentence and look at her with a questioning look.

"Oh, sorry. I just… remembered something…" she waved her hand dismissively, assuring the guy that whatever it was it couldn't be more important than his astonishing achievements, whatever they were now "…never mind."

"Oh, alright," he said, his fork with the twirled spaghetti at the end lingering between the plate and his mouth, and she sincerely longed for it to just be eaten. But it just kept hovering there while he continued "well, as I was saying, the article said I had won my first battle when I was ten, when I had been in fact _eight_, you see. I was really young when I started training, but I was really good for my age, ahead of many of the other kids…"

So they were somehow back on pokémon. And she couldn't care less, really, for whatever Travis had to say at this point. The alcohol had either not made any effect yet, or its effects were not helping her cope at all, for he was slowly beginning to take on her toll. This lousy Valentine's Day would hopefully be over soon, as long as he decided to just finish his Mew-forsaken spaghetti. But if he just kept talking, then…

"Excuse me," she finally said, putting the napkin that had been folded on her lap on the table and standing up as the brightest idea she had had that awful night finally struck "I'm going to the ladies' room. I'll be right back."

Walking away, she decided she would definitely take her time on the restroom so Travis could hopefully finish his spaghetti while he had no one to talk, and talk, and talk to. Unless he started talking to some stranger on the next table, unable to contain himself from proclaiming his simple awesomeness or whatever, to which she would respond by leaving him on the spot and taking the first train available to Cerulean. But that was just highly improbable.

So she made her way to the doors on the far end of the restaurant, which was actually the only restaurant for a few miles, making it the main target for couples' on Valentine's Day –she could see the people still cramming on the outside of the place –and was about to walk past a waiter holding a tray full of empty glasses when a hand got hold of her arm and, tugging on it, made her retrace a few steps back from her track.

"What –"

"Misty? Misty!" for a moment she just stared down at the person who had said her name so enthusiastically without saying a word. She could almost picture her completely lost expression before she finally registered the pair of brown eyes and the total disarray of black hair, making her eyes widen in surprise.

"Ash!" her voice squeaked, maybe because of the lack of use she had given it that night, or maybe because surprise had taken over it. Whatever the reason, it was after a small pause during which the addressed boy stood up from his seat that she added "Oh my… Oh my –hi!"

"Long time, no see!" he said happily, giving her a small pat on the back which she returned on his shoulder. It was ironic that she had remembered about him just a few moments before, but she wouldn't tell him that. It was far too embarrassing.

"I know! I –I didn't know you were in town. I would've called, or…"

"Oh, I just got here a few hours ago," he said, and she noticed that he had gotten freakishly tall for someone who had been such a shrimp for a long time "so how've you been? I heard about the Gym getting up the ranks!"

"That's right! The PIA was actually giving us a bit of a hard time, but we managed to win fifteen consecutive battles and they just couldn't look over that!" she couldn't help feeling a little proud and do a little boasting. It was after all her beloved Gym, and it wasn't like she would rant about it incessantly for the next couple of hours "but enough of that, how have _you_ been? You haven't given away your Master title, have you?"

"Nope! Still in place. They've sent me to some really cool places this last couple of months."

"That's great!" she said, and when for the first time she decided to look away from him and take a look at the table he was sitting on, she noticed a coat hung over the back of the chair opposite of him and a purse on the seat.

Her smile faltered for a moment, until she realized there was no reason for that; it was Valentine's Day after all, and even if it wasn't, the chances for him to be eating alone in an Italian restaurant were next to non-existent. And then she remembered it didn't matter anyway; Travis was waiting for her a few tables away, ready to talk about how awesome he supposedly was.

"Who's the lucky girl?" she asked, because whoever it was she was definitely luckier than herself. Ash _was_ very much full of himself sometimes, or so she remembered, but there was no way anyone could match her date's inflated idea about himself.

"Oh, it's –"

"Misty, is that you?" a sweet female voice she recognized instantly said from her left, and when she looked that way she confirmed that the one talking was in fact Delia Ketchum "My, my, look at you!"

"Mrs. Ketchum!" there was the squeaky voice again.

"It's been so long, sweetie!" she patted her back softly, just as her son had done, before taking her seat across from him and making a strange sense of relief wash over Misty, which she then realized didn't really belong there. But the woman continued "How've you been? Oh, just look how much you've grown!"

There was something in her voice that felt very motherly to Misty, especially because the closest she had ever gotten to 'motherly' was the rare times when Daisy decided to adopt her 'responsible oldest sister' manner, which was not very good and only lasted for a few minutes. It made her remember how much she liked her, and how nice she had been during the times she had stayed at her house all those years ago.

"I know, it's been ages!" she said, pulling at the sides of her dress as she felt both pairs of eyes suddenly staring at her after the woman's comment, and feeling slightly conscious "It's –It's so good to see you both."

"It's good to see you too, Misty!" Ash said while taking his seat again, leaving her hovering by his side.

"Why don't you join us?" Delia suggested in such a sweet manner that when she gestured towards the spare chair, she felt horribly tempted to seat on it even though she had already eaten a full meal. Anything would've been better than hear Travis rambling on and on about one thing or another, but she had to be polite after all.

"I'm sorry, I can't," she said, putting as much honest regret as she could into her words "I'm… with someone. I mean, it's just a date but…" she pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the table where Tracey's cousin sat.

"Oh, he's cute," Delia glanced in the direction Misty pointed before looking back at her.

"Yeah…" she said, and if she didn't sound very convincing –for she wasn't trying to sound like it at all –then neither Ash nor Delia said anything about it. Then she added "I should go," and wished she didn't have to, really.

"Well, I'll call you one of these days… and Brock too!"

"That'd be great!" she assured him.

She said her goodbyes to both of them, realizing that _that_ right there had been the most enjoyable moment in the whole lousy night, and returned to her table, realizing that she never even made it to the restroom. It didn't matter, anyway, because her mission had been accomplished; Travis's plate of spaghetti was finally empty, thank God, and as soon as she took her seat again the waitress arrived with the check.

"I asked for the check. It's alright, right? You didn't want anything else, right?"

"It's fine," she said, plopping down on her chair. She really didn't want anything else, but it would've been nice if he had asked her _before_ asking for the check. Either way, the guy was not redeeming himself, so it didn't matter what he did anymore. It was better for her, anyway, because she just wanted to leave.

Surprisingly, Travis said nothing more than necessary until they were outside the restaurant –people were _still_ in line for a table, Misty noticed –and they were already a block away from the place, walking by a gift shop with a Valentine's Day themed display of luvdisc plushies and toy Pokéballs that had the words 'You Caught My Heart!' printed on them –she hoped no one ever decided to get her the latter–when he suddenly asked "was that Ash Ketchum?"

The question caught her off guard for a reason, and after a small pause she finally answered "Um, yeah."

"You know him?" this _also_ caught her off-guard; it was the first question about herself he had asked her during the whole damn night.

"Yeah," she said hesitantly, wondering if he was getting somewhere or if he was actually interested, which was not very likely "he's my…" she craned her brains for the right way to describe what Ash was for her, until she settled for "…childhood friend. I traveled with him for years."

There was another silent pause while they kept walking down the sidewalk, her hands stuffed in her coat's pocket, and she thought that her explanation of what Ash was to her was probably the longest she had talked to Travis. It really had been a pathetic Valentine's Day; the thought made her shoulders drop slightly.

"He's still Kanto's Pokémon Master, isn't he? Isn't he handing over the title or something?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, realizing she didn't even want to talk to the guy anymore "I doubt it, though. He's been after it since I met him, which is ten years already…"

"Really? So, he bought the title in the end, didn't he?"

His last words made Misty stop dead in her tracks. Travis gave two more steps before he noticed her sudden halt and turned around, a frown she felt like slapping off him plastered on his face.

"He earned it fair and square," she said, realizing her voice had gotten dangerously edgy. She had coped with the guy's stupid antics, but for a reason his assumptions seemed to be very close to pressing a certain button inside her. Yes, she hadn't been with Ash during _all_ of his journeys, but she had followed his progress closely, and she knew him. She just did.

"Aw, come on! You don't believe that, do you?" he asked in a voice that she guessed was supposed to be amused, but she couldn't see the funny part at all. "the guy is _way_ too naïve to have gotten that far on his own. And that last battle with Lance… there was something fishy about the way that pikachu attacked… not to mention there's no way a pikachu can be that strong."

"Of course there is!" she said defensively, feeling her knuckles tightening inside her pockets and thinking Travis was reaching a whole newfound level of idiot "I _saw_ him train Pikachu. He didn't get where he is now on his own… but that's because he always had friends who supported him all the way. He got there clean and fair!" keeping her cool was proving to be extremely hard, and when he didn't immediately respond she added, in a lower voice, "who are you to say that about him, anyway?" while she started walking again.

"Alright, alright… I'm sorry I hurt your little friend," he said, following her tracks, and she knew he couldn't have meant it less, but she rightfully decided to ignore him "do you want to go get drinks?"

Misty's eyes narrowed at his suggestion, and without giving him a single glance she coldly said "No. I should probably get back to Cerulean. I'm going to the station."

"Come on. You aren't upset, are you? Don't be silly," she felt his hand on her shoulder, and even though she would've loved to slap it off her she managed to get surreptitiously away from it by accelerating her paces, but he insisted anyway "Come on, it's Valentine's Day! I'll buy you a drink and we'll have fun, I promise."

"What makes you think I want to have a drink with you?" she snapped, not caring about being nice or polite or anything anymore, and apparently forgetting that, as much of a jerk as he was, he was still Tracey's cousin. It didn't matter. "You've been nothing but an egotistical jackass until now, and you still expect me to go get _drinks_ with you?"

For a moment he was silent, and she guessed she had hurt some small spot of his swollen head; the thought pleased her a little.

"Is this still about your friend?" he then retorted "well, why don't you go with _him_, then. Go get drinks with him, and his date too, if that's your idea of fun."

"She was actually his mom, and I'm sure it would be a thousand times better than getting them with you," she said calmly as her steps got quicker and quicker, leading her in the direction of the station that would just get her the hell out of there at last. And just when she was finally deciding to not let him get on her nerves, Travis got dangerously close to the button inside her again; someone should teach the guy to shut the hell up.

"She was his _mom_?" he asked unbelievingly, finding some unknown amusement in the fact that Misty still failed to see "His _mom?_ He took his mom on a date on Valentine's Day?" he said between chuckles "How lame is that?"

That was it, the button was completely and utterly pressed; the berserk button, that was. The one that everyone should know better than to avoid. She had dealt with his unbearable idiocy long enough, and she wasn't going to take it any longer. She had her toll, for Mew's sake! And with that, she once again stopped on her tracks, but this time she turned around to face the worst excuse of a date she had ever encountered. Her fingers tightened into a fist at her side, and after facing him directly she drew it behind her own head before bringing it back at a surprising speed. With a satisfying crack, the fist made contact with his face.

"You are the most lame, conceited, moronic asshole I've ever met!" she yelled at him while he brought his own hands to cover his face and crumbled between growls and whimpers "And Ash is ten times the guy you could only _hope _to be! Goodbye!"

And with that, what was probably the most awful date in the history of Valentine's Day was finally over, for she walked away before giving him a chance to say nothing else –he was too busy moaning anyway –and took the first available train back to Cerulean.

**XXX**

"You're still, like, insane, you know that?" Lily said.

Misty shrugged and went back to her heart-shaped waffle. Of course she had felt guilty about it, but she wouldn't let such a jerk walk all over Ash's dignity and get away with it, even if it was behind his back. She didn't expect her sisters to understand, anyway.

**XXX**


End file.
